Source identified
“Procrastination is the thief of time. Collar him!”
Delay is personified as a thief because it quietly removes time that cannot later be recovered.
Source note: David Copperfield; Mr. Micawber’s advice.
Source identified
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”
Seneca shifts the complaint from life being too brief to attention and time being poorly spent.
Source note: English wording varies by translation.
Source identified
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
Time is treated as the substance from which life is built, so wasting it means spending something that cannot be recovered.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim connects the value of life directly with the use of time.
Source identified
“work while it is called Today.”
The sentence places useful effort in the time actually available now, making present action more important than indefinite postponement.
Source note: Past and Present, Book III, “Reward”; Project Gutenberg #13534. Carlyle echoes biblical language about working while it is day; the source page keeps the religious allusion explicit.
Source identified
“Well done is better than well said.”
Franklin gives execution priority over impressive promises or intentions.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack.
Source identified
“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.”
Voice: Fictional character · King Richard II
Time ignored earlier becomes painfully visible later, when opportunities narrow and delay can no longer be recovered.
Source note: Richard II, Act 5, Scene 5.